The Tranquillity Alternative by Allen Steele Read Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t unburdened herself to anyone thus far. Beneath the cool, professional barrier she had erected, there was a white-hot ember of anger, kept alive by contempt for the intolerant assholes who had done this to her….
    And a need for revenge.
    But Laurell didn’t ask. “Okay,” she said, slumping back in her seat as Cris pulled into a reserved parking space in front of the building. “If that’s what you say, I’ll trust you.”
    “Good girl.” Cris glanced at her watch. Ten minutes past three. She had already caught flack from the mission director for insisting on spending her last night at home, and Parnell was probably pissed off about her missing his little barbecue at the Beach House. She didn’t need any more shit about being late for the breakfast briefing.
    Fuck it. What were they going to do … fire her?
    She unbuckled her seat and shoulder harness, then reached into the back seat for her attaché case. “You know how to get to the commissary, right? Near the VAB. Grab a bite to eat, then get somebody to show you to the VIP viewing stands. Tell ’em …”
    “Tell ’em I’m your sister?” A wan smile.
    Cris hesitated. “No,” she said flatly. “Tell ’em you’re my wife.” Then she returned the smile. “It doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”
    Before either of them could start crying, Cris pulled Laurell close and embraced her. People were walking past the car, NASA employees heading for their shifts; under the bright sodium glare of the parking lot lights, they could see into the car. She hesitated, but then realized that it no longer mattered very much.
    She kissed Laurell farewell, not furtively as she had so many times before when they had been in a public place, but with all the passion she felt for the one true love of her life. Laurell’s arms moved around her shoulders as her soft lips responded with equal ardor.
    “Ten days,” Cris whispered as she broke the kiss and gently disengaged Laurell’s arms. “Ten days and I’ll be home, and I promise I’ll never leave you again.”
    Laurell reluctantly slid back into her seat. “God, I love you.”
    “I love you too, sweet. Be good.” Cris found the door handle, popped open the gullwing and shoved it upward, then crawled out of the car, pulling her attaché case and its treasonous secret behind her. “I’ll bring home a present….”
    Then she turned and began striding down the walkway to the entrance of Operations and Checkout, where a uniformed MP was waiting to hold the door open for her.
    Captain Cristine September Ryer, USAF, NASA Astronaut Corps, reporting for her final mission.
    Suit-up took only a few minutes. The blue one-piece astronaut jumpsuit over shorts and T-shirt, tucked into high-top sneakers, was preferable to the clunky old pressure suits she had worn during basic training. Cris spent several minutes stuffing her pockets with pens, notepads, penlights, food sticks, and assorted other paraphernalia—she had packed her duffel bag yesterday, and along with everyone else’s it had already been loaded aboard the ferry—then went down the corridor to the infirmary, where two doctors gave her the usual pre-launch physical which told them nothing that they didn’t already know.
    When she was done, her next step was supposed to be joining the rest of the crew for the breakfast briefing. However, Cris had been careful to forget her mission notebook, making it necessary for her to walk back down the hall to the women’s locker room. The room was empty, as she had anticipated, but she looked both ways as she reinserted her magnetic keycard into the slot of her locker and opened it.
    The 3.5-inch diskette concealed within her attaché case bore the handwritten word “Tetris” on its label. Indeed, if someone booted up the disk and typed that word into a keyboard, they would find a fully functional copy of the popular Russian arcade game. Yet the other program on the disk, not listed in the directory, was a game